- Episodes : N/A
- Genre :Action, Comedy, Superhero
- Airing Date : October 2015 - ongoing
- Producers : MADHOUSE
One-Punch Man Preview / Plot (No Spoilers)
One-Punch Man is the story of Saitama, an out of work salaryman. One day, his city is attacked by a large crab-like creature. During the attack, he manages to save a child and subdue the monster.
From that point, he decides that he will live out his childhood dream of being a superhero. Saitama undergoes intense training and pushes himself beyond the physical limits of ordinary humans.
The result? He becomes strong. So strong, that he is able to defeat any threat to the city with a single punch. Hence, he is known as the One-Punch Man.
What does One-Punch Man cater to?
This series is for people who like to see a twist on typical genres. Of course, people will get their fill of battles and town destruction. But, the main story arc revolves around our apathetic hero who is no longer challenged by the mysterious beings who constantly attack Z-City.
Fans who enjoy seeing new monsters and characters introduced, on a regular basis, will enjoy this show. There are plenty of monsters, an association of heroes, and an organization of villains that keep the story moving at a decent pace.
What's so appealing about this piece of work.
One-Punch Man does an amazing job of stringing you along. You’ll willingly follow as each monster is built up to be insanely strong and even more unstoppable than the previous threat.
You think to yourself, “OK. This is the one. This is where Saitama will have to get serious. He may even be defeated by this overwhelming creature!” But, Saitama will just make a fist and punch the villain (and your hopes) into oblivion.
This different take on the typical superhero genre is really enjoyable and capitalizes on the opportunity to poke fun at hero and villain archetypes.
One-Punch Man Trailer
One-Punch Man Main Characters List
Saitama
Voice Actor :Makoto Furukawa
The laid-back and unassuming main character. He is easily the strongest person in the One-Punch Man universe. But, he is still bound by human limits. For example: he can’t fly, use psychic abilities, or fire energy blasts.
He is likable because he isn’t cocky about his strength. Everything he says and does is in a matter-of-fact fashion. He is simply going through the motions of saving humanity and helping the Heroes Association until he meets someone who can rival his abilities.
Genos
Voice Actor :Kaito Ishikawa
An unlikely sidekick. Genos is a 19 year cyborg. This young man takes his superhero role very seriously. He is the foil to our bald hero’s lazy personality.
Upon witnessing Saitama’s incredible strength he decides to become his disciple. He constantly pesters Saitama for the secrets to his strength.
Genos believes that Saitama does not truly know how he became so unbelievably strong. So, he follows him around and studies him in hopes of ascertaining the true reason.
He is constantly trying to become more powerful and adept at saving people. Thus, his battle tactics, gadgets, and wealth of resources have made him respected and admired among his superhero peers.
Contains Spoilers
One-Punch Man Review
One Punch man was nothing short of amazing! It delivered exactly what we expected. From episode 1 to episode 12 it was a non-stop thrill ride with tears of laughter along the way. We knew going in that we were going to get, an overpowered hero that virtually had no equal in the universe. The only doubt was that it might fail to execute this premise with the finesse and love it deserved. Now, we see there was never any reason to worry!
This production was streamlined to perfection. All of the anime’s integral components, voice acting, animation, character designs, music, and so on, worked together as one cohesive unit. Everyone working on the project knew what their goal was, and no one took themselves too seriously. You could really tell that people involved with the anime were true fans of the source material as well.
As fans, we witnessed Saitama start from a “hero for fun” and work his way to a C-Class ranked official hero. None of this really matters of course, especially since this rank has no bearing whatsoever on his actual abilities. Moving up classes is something that Saitama basically does for fun. He has no real struggle in any of his fights, so he creates this personal challenge to move to the top. The reason I bring it up is because this is about the most character development we see out of him. And, I don’t mean that in a negative way at all.
Our hero knew who he was from the start. He’s just an average guy who physically trained his heart out for three years, so that he could pursue his childhood dream of being a hero for justice. Justice is the keyword here. Saitama may be the only member of the Hero Association, besides Mumen Rider, who truly embodies what justice stands for. This was made poignantly clear when he convinced an entire crowd that he was actually a conniving weasel. It was such a beautiful scene that I have to do a mini-recap for it.
Everyone had just witnessed their favorite heroes, from every single class, fall one by one to the horrific Sea King. Then out of nowhere this C-Class nobody decimates the amphibian with a single blow. How could this be? Obviously, there were two explanations. Either their champions had been much weaker than they previously believed. Or, said nobody had somehow cheated his way to victory.
Saitama chose to turn himself into the scapegoat for their fears and doubts so that people could continue to believe in the strength and ideals of their fallen heroes. He made them all believe that he waited for every other hero to selflessly attack and fall at the hands of the Sea King. He watched from the shadows until that monstrosity of a creature was “weakened” from their assault. Then he finished off the Sea King off took the glory for himself.
He didn’t care, at all, what people thought about him. He did care that the citizens were protected and that they continued to have hope through this time of darkness (and it is a dark time for the entire world in OPM’s universe). If that meant that they would never recognize him as a legitimate hero and actually insult him even more, then so be it. At that moment, we (and Genos) bore witness to an intimate moment in the life of a true hero.
Speaking of Genos, he and all of the other supporting characters were as entertaining and engaging as possible. What I mean is that respect for that character grew relative to how much screen time they got. Characters with a minute or two of scene time were memorable and entertaining. Anyone with more time than that was relatable and engaging. I say respect, and not likability or admiration, because some characters are definitely not meant to be “likable”.
But back to the main point, any character that had a speaking role in this show had personality and charisma. Because of this, every scene of the show was superb, even the ones that didn’t include our bald headed, caped crusader.
The season finale was a tricky episode for Madhouse. No matter what they did, they were going to slightly disappoint fans. Every episode had been better than the last, and the entire season had been one big build up to prophesized showdown between Saitama and Boros. Fans probably felt that since it was the season finale Saitama would have to put on his serious face (you know the one I’m referring to) and really struggle against this latest threat to humanity. Though he didn’t actually struggle versus Boros, he did have to resort to his “Serious Serious Punch”! So, no. Saitama was never really in any danger against this guy.
Of course the show wouldn’t wrap up every loose end, either. Especially for a story that’s still unfolding in the manga. And, it wouldn’t end with the citizens of City Z finally giving Saitama the praise that he deserved. That’s not the type of show that had been presented to us these past twelve weeks. Looking back, now we should have expected it to end the way it did.
Instead, what we received was a slow decline back to normal levels of excitement. Also, our favorite cue ball received a “reset”. He went back to defeating a global threat with a single punch. Pluton (King of the Underworld) even had a similar background (created from polluting the Earth) to the enemy Saitama defeated back in episode one, Vaccine Man.
We know that a season two hasn’t been officially confirmed, as of today (12/21), but come on, it’ll definitely get a second season. Knowing that, Madhouse definitely wants to save the details of Genos’ tragic past and the android who caused it. But, they lost out on a small opportunity to build up second season hype. They should have let Genos and Metal Knight have a slightly more meaningful interaction.
But, if that’s the only complaint a fan can come up with… then this show is destined to be remembered in greatness.
1. Saitama vs Carnage Kabuto
This fight is a highlight for two specific reasons. First, this was the first monster that had a multi-episode build up that ended in an intense (if one-sided) battle. Second, Saitama’s monologue about realizing that he had missed the big sale at his local supermarket was priceless. In the midst of taking a beating from Kabuto, the delivery was executed to perfection and it set the tone for comedic moments to follow.
2. Saitama vs Lord Boros
We received an epic battle that couldn’t even be contained in Earth’s atmosphere. Saitama pushed his enemy to the absolute limits of his power. He then acknowledged this alien’s strength by unleashing his two greatest techniques (that we’ve seen so far), the devastating “Consecutive Normal Punches” and the horrific “Serious Serious Punch”. We couldn’t have asked for more.
This is the best scene of the entire season. We were given a direct, heartfelt lesson in what it meant to be a champion for justice. Heroes aren’t all about pounding enemies to a pulp and saving the day. It instantly reminded me of what Batman had to pull off in The Dark Knight.
Conclusion
We recommend this series wholeheartedly to anyone who enjoys anime in any capacity. We can’t say enough good things about this show. Everyone will be talking about it for the next few weeks. Then, they will anxiously wait until a second season comes around for our viewing pleasure.
Luckily, we won’t have to wait long before we get some fresh OPM content. Included in, with the limited edition Blu-ray and DVD versions of One Punch Man season 1, are several short original OVA’s.
Well, that’s pretty much it for our review of One Punch Man. Please let us know what you thought about this series in the comments below. I’ll be down there talking to you guys about this epic season. Thanks a lot for reading and have a great day!
Author: Javier Garcia
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